Taken from our Spring 2023 issue, order your copy here.

“Sorry, I’m logged in to my friend’s zoom,” Billy Bryk hastily imparts as Finn Wolfhard’s name flashes across my laptop screen. Granted, that was not the name I was expecting to be met with when joining our call. But, when I thought about it, the surprise quickly evaporated. After starring in Ghostbusters: Afterlife together, the pair find themselves basking in the release of Jesse Eisenberg’s link-up with A24, When You Finish Saving the World, and headed towards making their directorial debut together with the slasher-comedy, Hell of a Summer. As intrinsically linked as the two actors may be, it is clear that Billy Bryk is ready to mark 2023 as the year he steps into his own spotlight – one set ablaze with the promise that he is one of Hollywood’s most compelling newcomers. Following the release of When You Finish Saving the World, Bryk sits down with Erica Rana to discuss Jonah Hill’s influence on his career, the pride he took in starring in Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut, and the sheer delight he is taking in working on his own.

I want to get straight into it and start with what inspired you to pursue this career.
I was in school studying to be a director and I went to the premiere of Jonah Hill’s movie, Mid90s, at TIFF. We listened to him talk about his journey of becoming a filmmaker through acting. At the time I wasn’t enjoying school and it felt like trying to learn through acting was worth the change.

It clearly was, as you now have A24’s When You Finish Saving The World coming out! How was your time filming this?
It was so much fun! Everybody was so incredibly nice to me. Jesse [Eisenberg] is someone that I admired so much as an actor, and I thought the script he had written was so incredibly moving and funny and I really didn’t want to do a bad job. I think from the audition to the last day of shooting, my entire goal was not to mess up the movie for everybody as there were so many people involved that respected so much.

I can imagine, working alongside Julianne Moore must have been exciting?
Julianne Moore is maybe my favourite actor; I couldn’t believe that I got to work with her. She was just the most incredible, professional actor… But also so light and fun to hang out with on set. Finn [Wolfhard] told me that he was doing this movie with Jesse that was about this teenage kid and his mum and the first thing I said was, “Dude, what if Julianne Moore played your mum?” Of course, I was not the only person to have that thought. Flash forward a few months, and I’m doing this movie with her.

You’re also making your directorial and screenwriting debut with Finn this summer with Hell of a Summer. How are you feeling about that?
I’m so incredibly excited. It was the craziest and best experience of my life. Finn and I have been working on this script since we first met on the set of Ghostbusters. We shot it over the past summer and we’re editing it now. I can’t wait for people to see it eventually.

Do you remember the moment you both decided to make this film?
I actually had met Finn on the street randomly about a year before we worked together on Ghostbusters, and I had known that he was a big fan of these comedians called Jake and Amir and we ended up talking about them for a little bit. I sat across from him the first day of filming and he was like, “You’re the Jake and Amir kid!” After that, we realised we had very similar tastes in films. Then we were like, “What if we made a divorce movie like The Squid and The Whale?” Meanwhile, both of our parents are still together, so I don’t think it was really the movie for us to write. But we tried it and then out came this insane slasher comedy. We’ve tried to make this really energetic and funny ensemble comedy that represents the generation of kids that we grew up around. There are a lot of specific characters that couldn’t have existed before Gen Z, but we also wanted it to feel timeless like the comedies that we grew up watching.

2023 is going to be a big year for you. What are you most looking forward to over this coming year?
Oh, man, I’m really looking forward to both of these films coming out. Also, I feel like I’ve been all over the place and living out of a suitcase trying to make these movies. Now that it’s done, I want to find somewhere to live, which maybe sounds less exciting than all of the work stuff.